Dates

• Existence: Born 1967

Biography

Professor Vanessa Toulmin comes from a Lancashire fairground Showmen family. She was born in Morecambe in 1967 where her maternal family had settled at the Winter Gardens fairground. Her mother was from a Lancashire show family, the O’Connors, and her grandmother from a Yorkshire family that travelled the Pot fairs all the way from Yorkshire to Cambridge.

The family left Morecambe when Vanessa was eight years old after the death of her grandparents. Vanessa spent her childhood working on the fair for her aunts and uncles in Wales and Lancashire spinning candy floss and minding children’s rides, amongst other things.

Professor Toulmin was the first member of her family to attend higher education, studying Archaeology at the University of Sheffield and later conducting a PhD inspired by her showman roots entitled 'The Social and Oral History of Travelling Showpeople from 1890 to the Present Day', which she completed in 1997. That same year she was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for outstanding achievement. Her passion for popular entertainment stems from her childhood on the Winter Gardens fairground in Morecambe and the fairgrounds in Lancashire and the North of England. Her family fairground history was also a great influence igniting her interest on the subject, with numerous members performing on shows, in particular her aunty Brenda who was a contortionist at the Moulin Rouge in Paris in the 1960s.

In 1994, while conducting her PhD Professor Toulmin stablished the National Fairground Archive in the University Library with the support of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the Fairground Association of Great Britain. In 1997 she won a grant to digitise the archive’s photographic collection from the Heritage Lottery Fund, making it one of the very first grants to ever be awarded to a university. Professor Toulmin continued her studies while working as the Director of the archive, which she developed into a major international research resource into the history of popular entertainment. In 2007 she became a professor taking a Chair in Early Film and Popular Entertainment, making her the first academic to be awarded a Personal Chair in this subject in any university. During her time teaching in Sheffield, she introduced new courses to the School of English, published numerous papers and monographs, lectured at international level and worked as a consultant sharing her expertise in major cultural and urban developmental projects. She was also a Champion for the Arts on behalf of the University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). A leading authority on Victorian entertainment and film, Professor Toulmin has completed extensive research on travelling showpeople. She conducted internationally significant research on the film pioneering company Mitchell & Kenyon and helped bring their story to a wider audience and her innovative Admission All Classes (AAC) project with Blackpool Council has been a model for knowledge transfer in the humanities. She is also a leading authority on new variety and circus and has acted as creative advisor to festivals in the United Kingdom including the Roundhouse in London, Showzam in Blackpool and Circus250, which celebrated 250 years of the birth of circus.

Professor Toulmin is the author of several books, including ‘The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon’, ‘Electric Edwardians’, and ‘Pleasurelands’. Her recent publications include four major works on the architecture and history of Blackpool's attractions: Winter Gardens, Blackpool Tower, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the Blackpool Illuminations.

Professor Toulmin's work has been published in internationally recognised journals. She has submitted a wide range of articles which includes topics such as early film, Edwardian and Victorian entertainments, the history of freak shows, carnivals and British fairgrounds and the culture and society of travelling showpeople amongst others. She has also curated many major exhibitions including a national touring exhibition on the history of travelling fairs for the Sheffield Millennium Gallery, Croydon Clock Tower, Edinburgh Arts Centre and the exhibition gallery in the Western Bank Library at the University of Sheffield. She has also acted as Special Advisor to two Government Select Committees on travelling fairs and gypsy sites.

Professor Toulmin has acted as historical consultant for seven major television productions since 2000, including the Mitchell & Kenyon series on BBC2 and has co-produced five major radio programmes with BBC Radio 4 on popular entertainment, history of fairs and early cinema. She worked with BBC 4 Timeshift producing two programmes on the history of fairs and circuses and has also appeared on Who Do You Think You Are and the Reel History of Britain with Melvyn Bragg.

Acting as a producer and consultant on heritage and performance history, Professor Toulmin worked for five years with Blackpool Council on their heritage and regeneration. She was the creative director of Showzam: Blackpool's annual festival of Circus Magic and New Variety and she has presented shows and events across Sheffield as part of the archive's outreach strategy.

In 2009-2010 Professor Toulmin acted as a special advisor on heritage and regeneration to the CEO of Blackpool Council, Steve Weaver.

Since 2020 Professor Vanessa has been the Chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust, working on the preservation of the Winter Gardens and regeneration of Morecambe.

Professor Toulmin is currently the Director of City & Culture at the University of Sheffield and the Curator and Producer of Festival of the Mind and Ideas Bazaar. She continues with her connection with the archive as Research Director and member of its Advisory Board. She remains in close touch with the fairground communities whose lives and histories continue to provide a wealth of documentary material to the archive.